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Hazards 24

Hazards 24 will provide a platform for sharing best practice and latest research on all aspects of chemical and process safety in Europe, helping you to manage and reduce risk more effectively.

OverviewIt is widely accepted that process safety competence, coupled with the importance of retaining lessons learned in a corporate memory, is at the heart of a safe operating environment.

Despite this, we continue to see major process industry accidents caused by human error, a failure to learn from past incidents and breakdown of process safety systems.

History reminds us that the financial and human costs of a major incident will typically far outweigh the costs of proper prevention. However, we still see catastrophic episodes, causing fatalities and serious injuries; the recent explosion at a Texas fertiliser plant involving ammonium nitrate was remarkably similar to incidents at Oppau, Germany and Texas City, USA, demonstrating that this type of event can happen over and over again.

Increasingly, it is also industry leadership that comes under the spotlight. In 2012 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published new guidance on corporate governance. It reinforced the notion that process safety leadership from the very top of an organisation is essential for successful and sustainable business performance.

Risk will never be eliminated, but it can be better managed and reduced. IChemE’s technical strategy, Chemical Engineering Matters, outlines our commitment to working with governments, regulators and other stakeholders to manage and reduce risk, in part by providing platforms to share best practice, discuss past experiences and highlight new developments.